Darren McGavinActor

Darren McGavin (May 7, 1922 – February 25, 2006) was an American actor best known for playing the title role in the television horror series Kolchak: The Night Stalker and his portrayal in the film A Christmas Story of the grumpy father given to bursts of profanity that he never realizes his son overhears. He appeared as the tough-talking, funny detective in the 1950s television series Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer. From 1959-1961, McGavin starred in the NBC western series Riverboat, first with Burt Reynolds and then with Noah Beery, Jr., and in later years, he had a recurring role in the sitcom Murphy Brown, as the title character's father, for which he received an Emmy Award.
McGavin was born William Lyle Richardson in Spokane, Washington, a son of Grace Watson (née Bogart) and Reed Daniel Richardson. He graduated from Puyallup High School.
In magazine interviews in the 1960s, he said his parents divorced when he was very young. His father, not knowing what else to do, put him in an orphanage at the age of 11. McGavin began to run away, sleeping on the docks and in warehouses. He lived in three orphanages.

2. Actors Studio Theater Company

The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights at 432 West 44th Street in the Clinton neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded October 5, 1947, by Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, Robert Lewis and Anna Sokolow who provided training for actors that were members. Lee Strasberg joined later and took the helm in 1951 until his death on February 17, 1982. It is currently run by Al Pacino and Ellen Burstyn. The Studio is best known for its work refining and teaching method acting. This approach was originally developed by the Group Theatre in the 1930s based on the innovations of Constantin Stanislavski. While at the Studio, actors work together to develop their skills in a private environment where they can take risks as performers without the pressure of commercial roles.

Billy Madison is a 1995 American comedy film directed by Tamra Davis. It stars Adam Sandler in the title role, along with Bradley Whitford, Bridgette Wilson, Norm Macdonald and Darren McGavin. The film was written by Sandler and Tim Herlihy, and produced by Robert Simonds. It made over $26.4 million worldwide and debuted at #1. The film is about a slacker who must go back to school in order to take over his father's company. The comedy also features Chris Farley and Steve Buscemi with uncredited appearances. Sandler would later form a production company, Happy Madison Productions, named after a combination of this film's title character and Happy Gilmore's.

4.
Danielle Steel's A Perfect Stranger
(1994)

Danielle Steel's A Perfect Stranger, also known as A Perfect Stranger is a 1994 American romantic-drama film directed by Michael Miller, whose most important element is the love triangle which characterizes it. The special effects were created by Brock Jolliffe. The film is set in San Francisco, California and was released in the USA in 1994.

6.
Perfect Harmony
(1991)

Perfect Harmony is a Disney movie that is set in the US Civil Rights era. The story highlights the racial tensions of the Black and White populations within a South Carolina town and its private school. The production was filmed at Berry College, and is noted for its soundtrack which featured classical choir pieces. It was released on VHS and later on DVD.

Captain America is a 1990 American-Yugoslavian superhero film directed by Albert Pyun. The film is based on the Marvel Comics superhero of the same name. While the film takes several liberties with the comic's storyline, it features Steve Rogers becoming Captain America during World War II to battle the Red Skull, being frozen in ice, and subsequently being revived to save the President of the United States from a crime family that dislikes his environmentalist policies.

8.
Child in the Night
(1990)

Child In The Night is a motion picture made for television broadcast during the 1990 May Sweeps. It aired on the CBS Network before a subsequent release to home video and syndication. The psychological thriller stars JoBeth Williams as a child psychologist, Tom Skerritt as a local police chief and introduced nine-year-old Elijah Wood as a troubled witness to a brutal slaying. Darren McGavin co-starred.

9.
Dead Heat
(1988)

Dead Heat is a 1988 movie about an LAPD police officer, Roger Mortis, killed while attempting to arrest zombies who have been reanimated by the head of Dante Laboratories in order to carry out violent armed robberies. Joe Piscopo co-stars.

Raw Deal is 1986 American action film directed by John Irvin, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kathryn Harrold, Darren McGavin and Sam Wanamaker. The film was released in the United States on June 6, 1986. The film tells the story of an elderly and embittered high ranking FBI chief, Harry Shannon, who wants to get revenge against a Mafia organization and sends a former FBI agent and now small-town sheriff Mark Kaminsky to destroy the organization from the inside.

The Natural is a 1984 film adaptation of Bernard Malamud's 1952 baseball novel of the same name, directed by Barry Levinson and starring Robert Redford, Glenn Close, and Robert Duvall. The film, like the book, recounts the experiences of Roy Hobbs, an individual with great "natural" baseball talent, spanning decades of Roy's success and his suffering. It was the first film produced by TriStar Pictures. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actress, and nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. Many of the baseball scenes were filmed in Buffalo, New York's War Memorial Stadium, built in 1937 and demolished a few years after the film was produced. Buffalo's All-High Stadium stood in for Chicago's Wrigley Field in a key scene.

A Christmas Story is a 1983 American Christmas comedy film based on the short stories and semi-fictional anecdotes of author and raconteur Jean Shepherd, based on his book In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash, with some elements derived from Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories. It was directed by Bob Clark. The film has since become a holiday classic and is shown numerous times on television during the Christmas season on the American network TBS, often in a 24-hour marathon. The film earned director Clark two Genie Awards. In 2012, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Awards

1984 Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television Award for Best Screenplay

17.
Hangar 18
(1980)

Hangar 18 is a 1980 science fiction film that was released to capitalize on the UFO interest of the era. The film itself carries ties to Area 51, as well as ufology. Although it flopped, it tantalized those who saw government cover-ups of UFOs. In May 1989, Hangar 18 was featured in an episode of the movie-mocking television show Mystery Science Theater 3000 during the KTMA era. The picture was released by Sunn Classic Pictures, an independent U.S.-based film distributor whose library is now owned by Paramount Pictures, notable for presenting what TV Guide called "...awful big-screen 'documentaries' [like] In Search of Noah's Ark and In Search of Historic Jesus".

18.
The Users
(1978)

The Users is a 1978 television film directed by Joseph Hardy. The film, whose executive producer was Aaron Spelling, is based on a Joyce Haber novel released in the same year. The film focuses on the insiders of the Hollywood film industry.

19.
Hot Lead and Cold Feet
(1978)

Hot Lead and Cold Feet is a comedy western film produced by Walt Disney Productions and distributed by Buena Vista Distribution Company, starring Jim Dale, Don Knotts, Karen Valentine, Darren McGavin, and Jack Elam released on July 5, 1978.

20.
Zero to Sixty
(1978)

Zero to Sixty is a 1978 American comedy film directed by Don Weis. The film never received a theatrical release, but it was later reviewed by TV Guide, which called McGavin "fun to watch" in the film but noted the premise was brought to the screen six years later in a different film, Repo Man.

Airport '77 is a 1977 disaster film and third movie in the Airport franchise. The film stars a number of veteran actors, including Jack Lemmon, James Stewart, Joseph Cotten, Christopher Lee and Olivia de Havilland. Like its predecessors, Airport '77 was a box office hit earning $30 million, making the film the 19th highest-grossing picture of 1977. It was nominated for two Academy Awards and was directed by Jerry Jameson.

22.
No Deposit, No Return
(1976)

No Deposit, No Return is a 1976 comedy film directed by Norman Tokar. It was written by Arthur Alsberg and Don Nelson. It is the story of two children who hold themselves for ransom, reluctantly aided by a couple of inept petty criminals, an expert safecracker who somehow never manages to steal anything, and his bungling sidekick.

23.
Crackle of Death
(1974)

Crackle of Death is a 1976 film, the third produced in the Night Stalker film series. It combined the Kolchak: The Night Stalker episodes "Firefall" and "The Energy Eater" with additional narration by Darren McGavin as Kolchak. It also contains new dialogue by McGavin, Oakland and Grinnage, as well as new "scenes", such as a newspaper on a desk and the image of the Doppelganger being inserted into old footage. Crackle of Death was followed by a fourth movie entitled Demon and The Mummy that combined two more episodes in a similar manner; namely, "Demon In Lace" and "Legacy of Terror". All four episodes comprising these films were subsequently withdrawn from the original television syndication package. They were not made available in their entirety again until a Columbia House VHS video release in the 1990s. The TV-edited films have never been released on home video.

The Night Stalker is a made for television movie which aired on ABC on January 11, 1972. In it an investigative reporter, played by Darren McGavin, comes to suspect that a serial killer in the Las Vegas area is in fact a vampire. Based on the then-unpublished novel by Jeff Rice entitled The Kolchak Papers, Rice wrote the novel because "I'd always wanted to write a vampire story, but more because I wanted to write something that involved Las Vegas." Rice had difficulty finding any publisher willing to buy the manuscript until agent Rick Ray read the manuscript and realized the novel would make a good movie. The 1973 novel wasn't published until after the TV movie had already aired, and was delayed according to Rice because the publisher wanted both Rice's original novel and the 1974 sequel The Night Strangler so "they could be placed on the top of the publisher's list in the 1 and 2 positions for 1974.".

25.
Mrs. Pollifax-Spy
(1971)

Mrs. Pollifax-Spy is a comedy film directed by Leslie H. Martinson, starring Rosalind Russell and Darren McGavin, and released by United Artists. This was Russell's last theatrical film role, with one TV movie in 1972. Russell adapted the novel The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, written by Dorothy Gilman under the pseudonym C. A. McKnight.

28.
The Case Against Brooklyn
(1958)

The Case Against Brooklyn is a 1958 film directed by Paul Wendkos. It stars Darren McGavin and Margaret Hayes. It was based on a True Magazine article I Broke the Brooklyn Graft Scandal by crime reporter Ed Reid. It featured depictions of American police corruption though no police officer in uniform is shown to be corrupt.

Awards

Top cast

Subjects

Music by

Cinematographers

Costumography

Soundtrack

Languages

Country

English

United States of America

29.
The Delicate Delinquent
(1957)

The Delicate Delinquent is a 1957 American comedy film starring Jerry Lewis. Shot in black-and-white and VistaVision in 1956 and released on June 6, 1957 by Paramount Pictures, it is notable as the first film Lewis made without his longtime partner Dean Martin.

The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell is a 1955 film directed by Otto Preminger. It stars Gary Cooper as Billy Mitchell, Charles Bickford, Ralph Bellamy, Rod Steiger and Elizabeth Montgomery in her film debut.

The Man with the Golden Arm is a 1955 American drama film, based on the novel of the same name by Nelson Algren, which tells the story of a heroin addict who gets clean while in prison, but struggles to stay that way in the outside world. It stars Frank Sinatra, Eleanor Parker, Kim Novak, Arnold Stang and Darren McGavin. It was adapted for the screen by Walter Newman, Lewis Meltzer and Ben Hecht, and directed by Otto Preminger. It was nominated for three Academy Awards: Sinatra for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Joseph C. Wright and Darrell Silvera for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White and Elmer Bernstein for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture. Sinatra was also nominated for best actor awards by the BAFTAs and The New York Film Critics. The film was controversial for its time; the Motion Picture Association of America refused to certify the film because it showed drug addiction. The black-and-white film uniquely portrayed heroin as a serious literary topic as it rejected the standard "dope fiend" approach of the time. It was the first of its kind to tackle the marginalized issue of illicit drug use.

33.
A Word to the Wives
(1955)

A Word to the Wives is a 1955 sponsored comedy film directed by Norman Lloyd and starring Marsha Hunt and Darren McGavin. The film, now in the public domain, was sponsored by the American Gas Association, the National Association of Home Builders, and Woman's Home Companion magazine, and features products by Caloric, Whirlpool Corporation, Formica Corporation, Republic Steel Kitchens, and Ruud.

Guest TV appearances

Alfred Hitchcock Presents

Program genre

External resources

Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. By the time the show premiered on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades. Time magazine named Alfred Hitchcock Presents one of The 100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME.

Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre

Program genre

External resources

Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre is an American anthology series, sponsored by Chrysler Corporation, which ran on NBC from 1963 through 1967. The show was hosted by Bob Hope, but it had a variety of formats, including musical, dramatic, and comedy.

Appearance history

Epizode

Air date

Role

Writer

Director

S02-E07

November 27th, 1964

Joe Mason

S01-E26

May 1st, 1964

Franklin Carson

Bracken's World

Program genre

Drama

External resources

Bracken's World is an American drama series broadcast on NBC from September 19, 1969 to December 25, 1970. The series was created and produced by Dorothy Kingsley. The Lettermen were featured on the theme song, World.

Cimarron Strip

Program genre

External resources

Cimarron Strip is an American Western television series that aired on CBS from September 1967 to March 1968. Starring Stuart Whitman as Marshal Jim Crown, the series was produced by the creators of Gunsmoke. Reruns of the original show were aired in the summer of 1971.nCimarron Strip was one of only three 90-minute weekly Western series that aired during the 1960s, and the only 90-minute series of any kind to be centered primarily around one lead character.nCimarron Strip is set in the late 1880s in the Cimarron Territory, which would become the Oklahoma Panhandle in 1890. For complex historical reasons, this rugged strip of land existed as a virtually ungoverned U.S. territory for several decades. It was sometimes called No Man's Land, with a reputation for lawlessness and vigilante activity. On the show, Marshal Jim Crown is trying to bring order to the region before its political status is finally resolved.

Civil Wars

Program genre

External resources

Civil Wars is an American legal drama that aired on ABC from November 20, 1991 to March 2, 1993. The series was produced by Steven Bochco, known for his work on NYPD Blue, L.A. Law and Hill Street Blues. After a brief syndicated run on the FX Network in the mid 90s, the series has not aired since.

Appearance history

Epizode

Air date

Role

Writer

Director

S01-E10

January 29th, 1992

Noah Caldecott

Climax!

Program genre

Anthology

Anthology series

External resources

Climax! is an American anthology series that aired on CBS from 1954 to 1958. The series was hosted by William Lundigan and later co-hosted by Mary Costa. It was one of the few CBS programs of that era to be broadcast in color. Many of the episodes were performed and broadcast live, and although the series was transmitted in color, only black-and-white kinescope copies of some episodes survive to the present day.

Appearance history

Epizode

Air date

Role

Writer

Director

S03-E08

October 25th, 1956

Walter

Custer

Program genre

Western

Drama

External resources

Custer, also known as The Legend of Custer, is a 17-episode military-western television series which ran on ABC from September 6 to December 27, 1967, with Wayne Maunder in the starring role of then Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer. During the American Civil War, Custer had risen to the rank of major general, the youngest in the Union Army. He was demoted after the war during force reductions to the rank of Captain, but was reinstated in 1866 as a Lieutenant Colonel in command of the Seventh Cavalry, stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas. Many of the soldiers in the regiment were derelicts, former Confederates, or even criminals. The series was cancelled before the script timeline would have reached the Little Big Horn River of southeastern Montana, where all perished on June 25, 1876, in a Sioux Indian ambush,nRobert F. Simon played Custer's commanding officer, U.S. General Alfred H. Terry, who disapproved of Custer's long hair and much of his methodology of fighting Indians. Slim Pickens starred as a scout named California Joe Milner. Michael Dante appeared as Sioux Chief Crazy Horse. Peter Palmer played Sergeant James Bustard, a former Confederate soldier.

Death Valley Days

Program genre

Official site

External resources

Death Valley Days is an American radio and television anthology series featuring true stories of the old American West, particularly the Death Valley area. Created in 1930 by Ruth Woodman, the program was broadcast on radio until 1945 and continued from 1952 to 1970 as a syndicated television series, with reruns continuing through August 1, 1975.nThe series was sponsored by the Pacific Coast Borax Company and hosted by Stanley Andrews, Ronald Reagan, Robert Taylor, and Dale Robertson. With the passing of Dale Robertson in 2013, all the former Death Valley Days hosts are now deceased. Hosting the series was Reagan's final work as an actor; he also was cast in eight episodes of the series.

Appearance history

Epizode

Air date

Role

Writer

Director

S09-E28

April 12th, 1961

Zacharias Gurney

Dr. Kildare

Program genre

Medical drama

External resources

Dr. Kildare is an NBC medical drama television series which ran from September 27, 1961 until April 5, 1966, encompassing a total of 190 episodes. The show, which premiered at the same time as an ABC medical drama, Ben Casey, quickly achieved success and helped spark a number of new shows dealing with the medical field. Kildare told the story of a young intern, Dr. James Kildare (Richard Chamberlain), working in a fictional large metropolitan hospital (Blair General) whilst trying to learn his profession, dealing with the problems of the patients, and winning the respect of the senior doctor, Dr. Leonard Gillespie (Raymond Massey).

Gargoyles

Program genre

Official site

External resources

Gargoyles is an American animated series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation and Buena Vista Television, and originally aired from October 24, 1994 to February 15, 1997. It is noted for its relatively dark tone, complex story arcs, and melodrama; character arcs were heavily employed throughout the series, as were Shakespearean themes.nThe series features a species of nocturnal creatures known as gargoyles that turn to stone during the day. After spending a thousand years in a petrified state, the gargoyles are reawakened in modern-day New York City, and take on roles as the city's secret night-time protectors.nIts video game adaptation and a spin-off comic series were released in 1995. The show's storyline continued from 2006–2009 in a comic book series of the same title produced by Slave Labor Graphics.

Grace Under Fire

Program genre

External resources

Grace Under Fire is an American sitcom that aired on ABC from September 29, 1993 to February 17, 1998. The show starred Brett Butler, as a single mother learning how to cope with raising her three children alone after finally divorcing her no-good husband. The series was created by Chuck Lorre and produced by Carsey-Werner Productions.nGrace Under Fire was the highest rated new comedy of the 1993–1994 season.

Appearance history

Epizode

Air date

Role

Writer

Director

S03-E23

May 1st, 1996

Dad

Gunsmoke

Program genre

Action

Action/Adventure

Western

Adventure Film

External resources

Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman Macdonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West. The central character is lawman Marshal Matt Dillon, played by William Conrad on radio and James Arness on television. When aired in the UK, the television series was initially titled Gun Law, later reverting to Gunsmoke.nThe radio version ran from 1952 to 1961, and John Dunning writes that among radio drama enthusiasts Gunsmoke is routinely placed among the best shows of any kind and any time.

Highway to Heaven

Program genre

External resources

Highway to Heaven is an American television drama series which ran on NBC from 1984 to 1989. The series aired for five seasons, running a total of 111 episodes. It was shot entirely in California. The series starred Michael Landon as Jonathan Smith and Victor French—Landon's co-star from Little House on the Prairie—as Mark Gordon.

Appearance history

Epizode

Air date

Role

Writer

Director

S04-E19

February 24th, 1988

Hale Stoddard

Magnum, P.I.

Program genre

Action

Police procedural

Drama

Crime Fiction

Action/Adventure

Adventure Film

External resources

Magnum, P.I. is an American television series starring Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum, a private investigator living on Oahu, Hawaii. The series ran from 1980 to 1988 in first-run broadcast on the American CBS television network.nAccording to the Nielsen ratings, Magnum, P.I. consistently ranked in the top twenty U.S. television programs during the first five years that the series was originally broadcast in the United States. Originally appearing in a prime time American network timeslot of 8 p.m. Eastern on Thursdays, Magnum, P.I. was one of the highest-rated shows on U.S. television.

Mannix

Program genre

External resources

Mannix is an American television detective series that ran from 1967 to 1975 on CBS. Created by Richard Levinson and William Link and developed by executive producer Bruce Geller, the title character, Joe Mannix, is a private investigator. He is played by Mike Connors. Mannix was the last series produced by Desilu Productions.

Millennium

Program genre

External resources

Millennium is an American television series created by Chris Carter, creator of The X-Files, that aired on the Fox Network between 1996 and 1999. The series follows the investigations of ex-FBI agent Frank Black now a consultant, with the ability to see inside the minds of criminals, working for a mysterious organization known as the Millennium Group.nThere was also a crossover episode of The X-Files titled Millennium that featured the Millennium group and Frank Black.

Mission: Impossible

Program genre

External resources

Mission: Impossible is an American television series that was created and initially produced by Bruce Geller. It chronicles the missions of a team of secret government agents known as the Impossible Missions Force. In the first season, the team is led by Dan Briggs, played by Steven Hill; Jim Phelps, played by Peter Graves, takes charge for the remaining seasons. A hallmark of the series shows Briggs or Phelps receiving his instructions on a recording that then self-destructs, followed by the theme music composed by Lalo Schifrin.nThe series aired on the CBS network from September 1966 to March 1973, then returned to television for two seasons on ABC, from 1988 to 1990, retaining only Graves in the cast. It later inspired a popular series of theatrical motion pictures starring Tom Cruise, beginning in 1996.

Monsters

Program genre

External resources

Monsters is a syndicated horror anthology series which originally ran from 1988 to 1991 and reran on the Sci-Fi Channel during the 1990s. As of 2011, Monsters airs on NBC Universal's horror/suspense-themed cable channel Chiller in sporadic weekday marathons.nIn a similar vein to Tales from the Darkside, Monsters shared the same producer, and in some ways succeeded the show. It differed in some respects nonetheless. While Tales sometimes dabbled in stories of science fiction and fantasy, this series was more strictly horror. As the name implies, each episode of Monsters featured a different monster which the story concerned, from the animatronic puppet of a fictional children's television program to mutated, weapon-wielding lab rats.nSimilar to Tales, however, the stories in Monsters were rarely very straightforward action plots and often contained some ironic twist in which a character's conceit or greed would do him in, often with gruesome results. Adding to this was a sense of comedy often lost on horror productions which might in some instances lighten the audience's mood but in many cases added to the overall eeriness of the production.

Appearance history

Epizode

Air date

Role

Writer

Director

S02-E02

October 8th, 1989

Murder, She Wrote

Program genre

Cozy mystery

Crime Fiction

Crime

Procedural drama

Drama

Mystery

External resources

Murder, She Wrote is an American television mystery series starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. The series aired for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996 on the CBS network, with 264 episodes transmitted. It was followed by four TV films and a spin-off series, The Law & Harry McGraw. It is one of the most successful and longest-running television shows in history, with close to 23 million viewers in its prime, and was a staple of the CBS Sunday night lineup for a decade. The series is also successful around the world.nLansbury was nominated for a total of ten Golden Globes and 12 Emmy Awards for her work on Murder, She Wrote. She holds the record for the most Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress in a television drama series and the most Emmy nominations for outstanding lead actress in a drama series for Murder, She Wrote, with those nominations netting her four Golden Globe awards. The series received three nominations but no wins in the Outstanding Drama Series category at the Emmys. It was nominated for a Golden Globe in the same category six times and won twice.

Murphy Brown

Program genre

External resources

Murphy Brown is an American situation comedy which aired on CBS from November 14, 1988, to May 18, 1998, for a total of 247 episodes. The program starred Candice Bergen as the eponymous Murphy Brown, a famous investigative journalist and news anchor for FYI, a fictional CBS television newsmagazine.

Night Stalker

Program genre

External resources

Night Stalker is a television series that ran for six weeks in fall 2005 on ABC in America. The series starred Stuart Townsend as Carl Kolchak, an investigative reporter whose wife was murdered. Kolchak spends his time investigating other strange murders, believing they are linked in some way to his wife's murder. He is helped along the way by a fellow crime reporter Perri Reed, photographer Jain McManus and editor Anthony Vincenzo.nNight Stalker was a remake of the 1974 series Kolchak: The Night Stalker. ABC owned the rights to the original television movies, but not the Universal television series, and was limited to using only characters that had appeared in those movies.nIts first episode was broadcast on Thursday, September 29, at 9 p.m. against CSI: Crime Scene Investigation on CBS, The Apprentice on NBC and the 2005 MLB playoffs on Fox. Night Stalker was canceled after six episodes due to low ratings. However, the Sci-Fi Channel, which frequently shows canceled network genre shows, showed all ten filmed episodes during summer 2006. The ratings were poor on SciFi Channel as well. In 2007, the show continued in rotation on the network's weekday series marathons.

Password

Program genre

External resources

Password is an American television game show which was created by Bob Stewart for Goodson-Todman Productions. The host was Allen Ludden, who had previously been well known as the host of the G.E. College Bowl.nPassword originally aired for 1,555 daytime telecasts each weekday from October 2, 1961 to September 15, 1967 on CBS, along with weekly prime time airings from January 2, 1962 to September 9, 1965 and December 25, 1966 to May 22, 1967. An additional 1,099 daytime shows aired from April 5, 1971 to June 27, 1975 on ABC.nThe show's announcers were Jack Clark and Lee Vines on CBS and John Harlan on ABC.nTwo revivals later aired on NBC from 1979–1982 and 1984–1989, followed by a prime time version on CBS from 2008–2009.nIn 2013, TV Guide ranked it #8 in its list of the 60 greatest game shows ever.

Appearance history

Epizode

Air date

Role

Writer

Director

S04-E33

May 13th, 1965

Police Story

Program genre

Crime Fiction

Police

Drama

Anthology

External resources

Police Story is an anthology television crime drama that aired on NBC from 1973 through 1978. The show was the brainchild of author and former policeman Joseph Wambaugh and represented a major step forward in the realistic depiction of police work and violence on network TV. It was produced by David Gerber and Mel Swope.nAlthough it was an anthology, there were certain things that all episodes had in common; for instance, the main character in each episode was a police officer. The setting was always Los Angeles and the characters always worked for some branch of the LAPD. Notwithstanding the anthology format, there were recurring characters.

Rawhide

Program genre

External resources

Rawhide is an American Western TV series starring Eric Fleming and Clint Eastwood that aired for eight seasons on the CBS network on Friday nights, from January 9, 1959 to September 3, 1965, before moving to Tuesday nights from September 14, 1965 until January 4, 1966, with a total of 217 black-and-white episodes. The series was produced and sometimes directed by Charles Marquis Warren, who also produced early episodes of Gunsmoke.nSpanning seven and a half years, Rawhide was the fifth-longest-running American television Western, exceeded only by eight years of Wagon Train, nine years of The Virginian, fourteen years of Bonanza, and twenty years of Gunsmoke.

Appearance history

Epizode

Air date

Role

Writer

Director

S04-E02

October 2nd, 1961

Jed Hadley

George Templeton

Robert Montgomery Presents

Program genre

Anthology

Drama

External resources

Robert Montgomery Presents is an American dramatic television series which was produced by NBC from January 30, 1950 until June 24, 1957. The live show had several sponsors during its seven-year run, and the title was altered to feature the sponsor, usually Lucky Strike cigarettes, for example, Robert Montgomery Presents Your Lucky Strike Theater, ....The Johnson's Wax Program, and so on.

Appearance history

Epizode

Air date

Role

Writer

Director

S08-E12

November 26th, 1956

Joe Gillis

Route 66

Program genre

Drama

External resources

Route 66 is an American TV series in which two young men traveled across America in a Chevrolet Corvette sports car. It ran weekly on Fridays on CBS from October 7, 1960, to March 20, 1964. It was shot on location, and though it derived its title from a famous American highway, very few episodes involved that highway.nThe program starred Martin Milner as Tod Stiles and, for the first two and a half seasons, George Maharis as Buz Murdock. Maharis was ill for much of the third season, leading to his eventual departure from the series. During his absence, Tod was shown traveling on his own, though references were made to Buz. Late in the third season, with Maharis gone from the show, a new character, Lincoln Case, played by Glenn Corbett, was introduced. He and Tod traveled together until the end of the fourth and final season, parting ways in a then-unusual wrap-up episode. The series currently airs on Me-TV, My Family TV and RTV.nAmong the series' more notable aspects were the featured Corvette convertible, and the program's instrumental theme song, which became a major pop hit.

Sisters

Program genre

External resources

Sisters is a television drama which aired on NBC for six seasons, from 1991 to 1996. The series was created by Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman, who were also the executive producers and showrunners. The show debuted on May 11, 1991 for a seven-episode test run and was subsequently renewed for the 1991 fall schedule. Sisters was the first primetime network television series to focus specifically on the lives of women, and the issues relating to them. It was also one of the first 'demographic' hits because of its strong female viewership. Other series about women would eventually follow, but at the time it was regarded as being groundbreaking.

Stagecoach West

Program genre

External resources

Stagecoach West is an American Western drama television series which ran for thirty-eight episodes on the ABC network from October 4, 1960, until June 27, 1961. Characters Luke Perry and Simon Kane operate the Timberland Stage Line from fictitious Outpost, Missouri to San Francisco, California.

Suspense

Program genre

External resources

Suspense is an American television anthology series that ran on CBS Television from 1949 to 1954. It was adapted from the radio program of the same name which ran from 1942 to 1962. Like many early television programs, the show was broadcast live from New York City. It was sponsored by the Auto-Lite corporation, and each episode was introduced by host Rex Marshall, who promoted Auto-Lite spark plugs, car batteries, headlights, and other car parts.nSome of the early scripts were adapted from Suspense radio scripts, while others were original for television. Like the radio program, many scripts were adaptations of literary classics by well-known authors. Classic authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Agatha Christie, and Charles Dickens all had stories adapted for the series, while contemporary authors such as Roald Dahl and Gore Vidal also contributed. Many notable actors appeared on the program, including Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Franchot Tone, Robert Emhardt, Leslie Nielsen, Lloyd Bridges, and many more.nThe program was a live television series, but most episodes were recorded on kinescope. However, only about 90 of the 260 episodes survive today.

Appearance history

Epizode

Air date

Role

Writer

Director

S06-E22

January 26th, 1954

S05-E22

February 3rd, 1953

S04-E44

July 15th, 1952

Tales from the Darkside

Program genre

Horror

Fantasy

Science Fiction

Anthology series

Anthology

Suspense

Drama

External resources

Tales from the Darkside is an American anthology horror TV series created by George A. Romero; it debuted in 1984. Similar to Amazing Stories, The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, The Outer Limits, Tales From The Crypt, Monsters, and Lee Martin's The Midnight Hour, each episode was an individual short story that ended with a plot twist. The series' episodes spanned the genres of horror, science fiction, and fantasy, and some episodes featured elements of black comedy or more lighthearted themes.

Appearance history

Epizode

Air date

Role

Writer

Director

S02-E08

November 17th, 1985

Van Conway

Tales of Tomorrow

Program genre

Anthology

Anthology series

Science Fiction

External resources

Tales of Tomorrow is an American anthology science fiction series that was performed and broadcast live on ABC from 1951 to 1953. The series covered such stories as Frankenstein, starring Lon Chaney, Jr., 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea starring Thomas Mitchell as Captain Nemo, and many others featuring such performers as Boris Karloff, Brian Keith, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Bruce Cabot, Franchot Tone, Gene Lockhart, Walter Abel, Leslie Nielsen, and Paul Newman. The series had many similarities to the later Twilight Zone which also covered one of the same stories, What You Need. In total it ran for eighty-five 30-minute episodes.

Tales of the Unexpected

Program genre

External resources

Tales of the Unexpected is a British television series which aired between 1979 and 1988. Each episode told a story, often with sinister and wryly comedic undertones, with an unexpected twist ending. Early episodes were based on short stories by Roald Dahl collected in the books Tales of the Unexpected, Kiss Kiss and Someone Like You.nThe series was made by Anglia Television for ITV with interior scenes recorded at their Norwich studios whilst location filming mainly occurred across East Anglia. The theme music for the series was written by composer Ron Grainer.nAlthough similar in theme and title, the show is not related to the American anthology television series, Quinn Martin's Tales of the Unexpected, which ran for one season in 1977.

The Commish

Program genre

External resources

The Commish is an American comedy-drama television series that aired on ABC in the United States from 1991 to 1996. The series focuses on the work and home life of a suburban police commissioner in upstate New York.

Appearance history

Epizode

Air date

Role

Writer

Director

S05-E03

December 14th, 1995

S05-E02

December 7th, 1995

Terry Boyle

The Defenders

Program genre

Drama

Legal

Legal drama

External resources

The Defenders is an American courtroom drama series that ran on CBS from 1961–1965. It starred E. G. Marshall and Robert Reed as father-and-son defense attorneys who specialized in legally complex cases, with defendants such as neo-Nazis, conscientious objectors, civil rights demonstrators, a schoolteacher fired for being an atheist, an author accused of pornography, and a physician charged in a mercy killing. It was created by television writer Reginald Rose.

The Evil Touch

Program genre

External resources

The Evil Touch is an Australian-produced television series, originally broadcast in Australia in 1973. It was an anthology series where each episode had a self-contained story and a new set of characters. Each episode feature a new cast of guest actors, although several guest stars appeared in more than one episode, playing different characters. Each story is a thriller or horror story of some variety, ranging from tales of the occult and the supernatural, science fiction horror stories, to more standard murder schemes and whodunits. Most stories feature a twist ending.

The Islanders

Program genre

External resources

The Islanders is an American adventure television series which aired on ABC from 1960 to 1961, starring William Reynolds, James Philbrook, and Diane Brewster.nAt the beginning of the series, Sandy Wade and Zack Malloy, co-owners of a Grumman Goose amphibious aircraft, start their one-plane airline in the Moluccas or Spice Islands of the southeastern Pacific Ocean. Throughout the series they experience a variety of adventures where seemingly harmless charter flights put them into danger. They are frequently aided in their endeavours by the unusually-named Wilhelmina ”Steamboat Willy” Vanderveer and Shipwreck Callighan.nThe Islanders, primarily sponsored by Liggett & Myers' Chesterfield cigarettes, aired at 9:30 Eastern time on Sunday evenings opposite The Jack Benny Program and Candid Camera on CBS and the second half of The Dinah Shore Show and the last season of The Loretta Young Show on NBC.nWilliam Reynolds stated in an interview, The series went from being sort of like a Terry and the Pirates or a Maverick type of concept to becoming just a bunch of people skulking around. It wasn't very good.

The Love Boat

Program genre

External resources

The Love Boat is an American television series set on a cruise ship, which aired on the ABC Television Network from September 24, 1977, until February 27, 1987. The show revolves around the ship's captain and a handful of its crew, with several passengers – played by different guest actors for each episode – having romantic and humorous adventures. It was part of ABC's popular Saturday night lineup that included Fantasy Island until that show ended in 1984.nThe original 1976 made-for-TV movie on which the show was based was itself based on the nonfiction book The Love Boats by Jeraldine Saunders, a real-life cruise director. Two more TV movies would follow before the series began its run.nThe executive producer for the series was Aaron Spelling, who produced several successful series for ABC from the 1960s into the 1980s.

The Name of the Game

Program genre

External resources

The Name of the Game is an American television series that starred actors Tony Franciosa, Gene Barry, and Robert Stack, and ran from 1968 to 1971 on NBC, totaling 76 episodes of 90 minutes each. It was a pioneering wheel series, setting the stage for The Bold Ones and the NBC Mystery Movie in the 1970s. The show had an extremely large budget--and an unusually high one for a television series.

The Philco Television Playhouse

Program genre

External resources

The Philco Television Playhouse is an American anthology series that was broadcast live on NBC from 1948 to 1955. Produced by Fred Coe, the series was sponsored by Philco. It was one of the most respected dramatic shows of the Golden Age of Television, winning a 1954 Peabody Award and receiving eight Emmy nominations between 1951 and 1956.

Appearance history

Epizode

Air date

Role

Writer

Director

S05-E26

August 16th, 1953

guest star

The Rogues

Program genre

Action/Adventure

Action

Adventure Film

External resources

The Rogues is an American television series that appeared on NBC from September 13, 1964, to April 18, 1965, starring David Niven, Charles Boyer, and Gig Young as a related trio of former conmen who could, for the right price, be persuaded to trick a very wealthy and heinously unscrupulous mark. Although it won the 1964 Golden Globe award for Best Television Series, the show was cancelled after one season consisting of thirty episodes.

The Six Million Dollar Man

Program genre

External resources

The Six Million Dollar Man is an American television series about a former astronaut with bionic implants working for a fictional government office known as OSI. The series is based on the Martin Caidin novel Cyborg, which was the series's proposed title during pre-production. Following three television movies aired in 1973, The Six Million Dollar Man aired on the ABC network as a regular series for five seasons from 1974 to 1978. The title role of Steve Austin was played by Lee Majors, who subsequently became a pop culture icon of the 1970s. A spin-off series, The Bionic Woman, ran from 1976 to 1978. Several television movies featuring both eponymous characters were also produced between 1987 and 1994.

Appearance history

Epizode

Air date

Role

Writer

Director

S00-E02

March 7th, 1973

S00-E01

March 7th, 1973

S00-E00

March 7th, 1973

The Virginian

Program genre

Action/Adventure

Drama

Western

Action

Adventure Film

External resources

The Virginian is an American Western television series starring James Drury and Doug McClure, which aired on NBC from 1962 to 1971 for a total of 249 episodes. It was a spin-off from a 1958 summer series called Decision. Filmed in color, The Virginian became television's first 90-minute western series. Immensely successful, it ran for nine seasons—television's third longest running western. It follows Bonanza at fourteen seasons and 430 episodes, and Gunsmoke at twenty seasons and 635 episodes.

The X-Files

Program genre

Official site

External resources

The X-Files is an American science fiction horror drama television series created by Chris Carter. The program originally aired from September 10, 1993 to May 19, 2002 on Fox, spanning nine seasons and 202 episodes. The series revolves around FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully investigating X-Files: marginalized, unsolved cases involving paranormal phenomena. Mulder believes in the existence of aliens and the paranormal while Scully, a skeptic, is assigned to make scientific analyses of Mulder's discoveries to debunk his work and thus return him to mainstream cases. Early in the series, both agents become pawns in a larger conflict and come to trust only each other. They develop a close relationship, which begins as a platonic friendship, but becomes a romance by series end. In addition to the series-spanning story arc, Monster-of-the-Week episodes form roughly two-thirds of the episodes. Such stand-alone episodes enrich the show's background while not affecting its ongoing mythology.

Touched by an Angel

Program genre

External resources

Touched by an Angel is an American supernatural drama series that premiered on CBS on September 21, 1994, and ran for 211 episodes and nine seasons until its conclusion on April 27, 2003. Created by John Masius and produced by Martha Williamson, the series stars Roma Downey, as an angel named Monica, and Della Reese, as her supervisor Tess. Throughout the series, Monica is tasked with bringing guidance and messages from God to various people who are at a crossroads in their lives. From season three on, they are frequently joined by Andrew, the angel of death. The series went into syndication in 1998, and has been shown on Ion Television, Hallmark Channel, and Uplifting Entertainment.

What's My Line?

Program genre

External resources

What's My Line? is a panel game show which originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, with several international versions and subsequent U.S. revivals. The game tasks celebrity panelists with questioning contestants in order to determine their occupations. It is the longest-running U.S. primetime network television game-show.